Jordan's former Prime Minister on the prospects for peace in the Middle East

The World Today Archive - Tuesday, 18 March , 2003 12:30:06

Reporter: Eleanor Hall

ELEANOR HALL: Well, a moment ago we heard the views of the Iraqi Ambassador who's just been expelled from Australia. Another prominent figure in the Arab world who's watching world events closely today is Jordan's former Prime Minister, Professor Abdel-Salam Majali.

Professor Majali was Prime Minister of Jordan twice during the 1990s. He's opposed to war in Iraq, just across Jordan's border, but he says he believes there is still a slim chance Saddam Hussein may avoid war by fleeing into exile.

Professor Majali is in Australia today, as it happens, talking on a topic that now appears more optimistic than ever, the prospect of peace in the Middle East.

I spoke to the former Jordanian Prime Minister just before we came on air and began by asking him for his reaction to the day's events.

ABDEL-SALAM MAJALI: It is a very unfortunate decision because war always is a disaster, and I think whatever one gets in peace means [s/he] gets far much better [than] whatever he gets in war.

ELEANOR HALL: Even if they don't support the war, though, is there not at least some support in the Arab world for Bush's goal of removing Saddam Hussein?

ABDEL-SALAM MAJALI: Well, you see, the removal of anybody at least in the democratic world [is] supposed to be by the people themselves. You do not go and remove people because they are not democratic, by force.

So this is the norm which everybody has to adopt. I think if the Iraqi people had the sanctions lifted and they had lived normal lives, they will be able to ask questions and possibly change their leadership.

ELEANOR HALL: Of course, the US policy planners are assuming that the Iraqi people do not support Saddam Hussein and will ultimately lay down their weapons when the Americans arrive. Now is that likely in your view?

ABDEL-SALAM MAJALI: I don't think so. I think the psychological thing when you announce that you're going to occupy and you're going to have a military leader and American or western or whatever it is, to them this fire backs.

Those even who don't like their own leaders, they become more attached to their own leader because of this situation.

ELEANOR HALL: Is Jordan already seeing an influx of Iraqi refugees across its border?

ABDEL-SALAM MAJALI: Well, unfortunately we are becoming almost experts in receiving refugees from all over. I mean, [in] the second Gulf War we received more than 1 million passing through and we received hundreds of thousands of people who returned to Jordan as Jordanians who are working in the Gulf. And again we had a good number of Iraqi refugees in Jordan.

ELEANOR HALL: If you were still Prime Minister of Jordan, would you be doing anything to try to negotiate with Saddam Hussein to get him to come into exile?

ABDEL-SALAM MAJALI: Well, I believe if the choice was that people, international figures like Mandela, like Schmidt, like Valery Giscard d'Estang, I think if they went to him and talked to him that he would save his own country and show him what is the dangers.

But you don't go and tell somebody, get out, from outside. Get out orů I mean, this is unbecoming in revolutions or in coup d'etats. Leaders, sometimes they are forced by their own people to go out. But not from outside to get out. I mean this is very unusual.

ELEANOR HALL: But do you still think that even now there could be a chance that some leaders in the region may convince Saddam Hussein to leave?

ABDEL-SALAM MAJALI: I am one of the people who advocate this and I feel more convinced that they can do something at this time for Saddam to stay away from the chair, and to try to democratise, what they call "democratise" or change or help the country to get out of this dilemma.

ELEANOR HALL: If, in the end, though, we are looking at war, what would that do to the stability of the region? And indeed would it fuel more terrorism, do you think?

ABDEL-SALAM MAJALI: I feel now, especially if it's a ground war and there are more casualties and it becomes a long war, I think there are going to be uprisings in every country in the Middle East. And that is going to get people in a lot of trouble, and a lot of instability. Because when the masses when they grow wild, it's very difficult to control them then.